3M Open Recap: Jhonattan Vegas victory + POY Discussion | The Smylie Show, 7/32/24

take this thing all the way to the top. Now Hang in there. It is. Smiley Kaufman for 61. Wow I'm Smiley Kaufman, and this is the Smiley show. Welcome back to the Smiley Show. And man, good to see Smiley Kaufman's face stateside once again, I'm Charlie Hume. I am. I was recently back from a Scotland golf trip. He is more recently back from an Ireland golf trip, and I am fired up for the episode that is dropping on Wednesday. Smiley because not only is it going to be an Ireland golf trip recap, it's the guys you're doing it with. Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth hopping on the show once again for a very unique, one of a kind golf trip recap like this is this is going to be amazing stuff. It sure will be. And as it stands right now it's almost 8 p.m. here. Central time in Birmingham to the last like three nights. I think I've gone to bed at like 745. So we were we were entering the candle light hours here for me. So bear with me if I just like fall over at 830 in the middle of this. But yeah, no, the, got some of the boys joining, like you said, JT and Jordan are going to come on and talk a little bit about the trip, but man, it was epic. We had a great time. Ireland, weather from what I was told, could be really poor, but we got like some of the best weather compared to where I was over in Troon the week before. So huge win. Awesome trip. Can't wait to recap it all, but, we got some. I think we got a good episode coming up. I think we got a lot of fun stuff to talk about. We got we do have a good episode because we have, of course, we're going to recap the 3 a.m. open, Johnny Vegas gets a win for the first time in a long time. So cool seeing a guy like that, you know, sort of a long shot to open the tournament, get it done, we're going to recap that we have a couple of things that feel like topics we need to sort of revisit things that we've been talking about all year long. We've been kind of checking in on and topics that it's worth kind of bringing back together in a week like this that's sort of in between major season, but heading into Fedex Cup playoff season. So we're going to talk a little bit about just that signature event, the composition of the points that are being handed out there, and kind of look at some some sections of that list to see how guys are doing relative to, you know, the events that they're qualified into, we're going to talk a little bit about the, the Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele Player of the year race because, that one is heating up a little bit, and we're going to dig into a little bit of looking at the, the PGA tour schedule compared to the live, schedule as we had, you know, a week where Jon Rahm wins his first event on live against the 3 a.m. open, the field is maybe a little bit lighter than than before. So all stuff we're going to dig into. But let's start there with a win for Johnny Vegas. And this is a guy that went from 149th on the Fedex Cup list to up to 66. That's an 83 spot jump, and right behind him to max Zerman goes from from 88 up to 63rd. So those are two guys that big weeks. Big weeks, big weeks. Listen, I've been the guy that I've been banging the drum all summer long. I thought it was going to be the summer of mad McNealy. I've had some near misses. How about my guy MAV going from 68th up to 57th? Feels like a good little week at the Wyndham. He should be in there. I'm happy to see MAV up there. What were your takeaways from from Johnny Vegas win, at TPC Twin Cities, my takeaway just the field man. It just wasn't doing it for me. The backup on the 18th just felt like the tournament was never going to end. I feel like if there was a playoff, I probably would have turned it off. I just was over watching it. It was nothing against the broadcast. It just was. They just couldn't get this thing to the finish line. The names there was, there wasn't any like great shots being played over the last, you know, hour or so that I was watching, I don't know, man. The field just right after an Open Championship. It it totally was, lacking, some firepower which, you know, I think in some of these events, like this year, like, for instance, like a Honda or a John Deere, rocket mortgage, I've found you know, that I've enjoyed watching those weeks. But for whatever reason, this week I, I just was not just not feeling up to it, and I imagine that I'm not the only one, though. I. How am I going to put this? I don't disagree with you, it was a tough season looking at some of the in fact, this is no better encapsulated than sitting watching the end of this tournament with my wife and son on our couch. And she's I think we're watching this is like the 18th hole, you know, Johnny Vegas is on the tee and she's like, I don't know who any of these guys are. Like you're not the only one, Amanda, but and but kind of to your point, though, like, there have been tournaments, we've seen a lot of different ones dating back to last year. How about a tournament you were at at the Sanderson Farms? I guess Ludvig was in the mix there, but just like a ton of guys coming to the finish, many of whom you don't know, but a lot of exciting young players and storylines that could develop and guys, you'll end up falling down the road where there was some sort of juice there. I think maybe it was just the way that it finished. Like Max Bazerman earned it today. You shot eight under par. Was right there. Looked like he might get into a playoff, you know, Johnny Vegas scraped his way to a one under round today to win by a shot. But we had a lot of big left misses off the tee. It wasn't like one of them. Yeah it wasn't I I'd say maybe the most intriguing storyline out of kind of that final group was Matt McNeill. I think at one point it only hit like 7 or 8 greens and was just like scrambling his face off to stay in competition, this week. But yeah, I mean, I think that's maybe it's some of these lower profile events you want to see sort of an exciting finish and a guy go out and get it and make a name for himself. This for, you know, for the first time, and we had some names there that could have gotten it done, like to hit the goal was kind of in the mix at the end, and it just kind of sputters out a little bit. Nothing. Nothing happened at the end of this. Like the last hour that you watched. All you watched were players misreading putts, like by a pretty large amount. And then, just guys not being able to hit it anywhere near the pin. And I've played this golf course when it's windy, like it is. I mean, the greens look relatively soft, but still it just there was like hardly any just epic golf play down the stretch. So it just felt like there was, down, down. However long the last hour, however long you were watching it just, there was no juice in it. Yeah. I mean, there's like this pool events that they're always like a fun kind of mid-summer watch where you sometimes you get the fireworks, but they can't all have fireworks. Like, I pull this one in with, you know, the John Deere and the Rocket Mortgage where it's. Yeah, in and around major golf and around signature event golf. And you just look you can't they can't all pan out to give you cool names for young names at the top of the leaderboard. And it just it just was one of those weeks, but we do I mean, we have Olympic golf coming up, which should be interesting. We also have to figure out how we're going to award one and done points for Olympic golf. That's like we have to assign we have to assign points to medals. Is Johnny Vegas playing for Venezuela in that like I don't I haven't even looked at the field for that. But, as you as you do a little typing, I'll give my just general thoughts about Johnny Vegas for those that that don't know his game, what he's like the nicest guy in the world, when you meet him in person and you're standing next to him, he's the type of guy that you're like, man, you could have played whatever sport you wanted to play. You could have played rugby. You could have played linebacker. The guy is huge and I played with him in Columbus one year, at the Web.com Tour Championship, and we were paired together. I don't know what round it was, but I remember on the on the 11th hole, I'm sitting there watching him tee off, and it was the first time I'd played with him and just the sound that his ball made and just you, you could almost hear him pushing off the ground, but his feet were stuck to the ground. You're like this guy is an epic hitter of the golf ball. And if you go look at his stats throughout his entire career, guy's been in just an elite bal. Striker just puts it right down in the middle of the fairway, hits it hard. And, is if anything, if you criticize any part of his game and why he hasn't been more successful, it's been, the wedges and putting that's kind of always been his, his bugaboo. But he's been a great, ball striker, which for the most part, when you look at PGA tour and guys that have been out there a really long time, most of the time those are the guys that hit it pretty dang good, because most of the time the putters, in the really good chippers have bad years. And guess what? When you're hitting it bad, you're going to play your way off the tour, but Johnny Vegas, that he's been a mainstay on the PGA tour. And you look at his stats, like I said, he's seventh this year. Sherk's gained off the te, actually green. Green in regulation percentage always number two. But the one that I thought was the most interesting, which turned out to be the reason why he won the 3 a.m. was the seven iron he hooks left to the very far left side of the green and you're like, oh boy, this just seems like three putt central. But he's actually leading the tour this year in approach putt distance like from the whole thing. Yeah. So he's he's first in that category. So I mean there you go. The lag that he hit, both he and Grace Herman from very similar locations on the 18th green at TPC Twin Cities. Hit amazing putts. That race for the Cy Young pretty much as equally compelling and intriguing as the race for the wild card spots in the National League. And also keep in mind, Steen doesn't pitch the entire season, so his ERA gets affected much, much more. If he has a poor outing than, let's just say, Chris Sale or Zach Wheeler. That's been there all season long. This would be a fun one to watch and play out, but the big loser last night were the Phillies and Zach Wheeler. The early line only on sports grid. Where are you at in terms of a starting lineup? What do you want to see from team USA? I think he'll get guys involved and the nature lock down defender at the point guarde point of attack right. I do like Curry. I would then go with an I like an over booker. I think if you look at the way the Canada game was, they look kind of slow starting. And then they kind of got rolling game time decisions only on sports grid. The silver and the bronze. I give you Canada, France, Germany, Serbia and Australia. Germany, more so than Canada. I think that their talent, it's a little more tiered. You know what, Dennis Schroder is capable of? Franz Wagner, another player. Daniel Tyson steps up and Mo Wagner as well. They're built to really take advantage of the mistakes that team USA makes and they can make the effort. Plays Newswire only on Sports Grid. The Bostonian versus the book. You must have just fallen off. It's gotta go skeins. Got another strike out there I don't want to take. As soon as I take it off, you're going to give up a run. I'm trying to keep it on until he comes out of the game. It's all over the place. Come on. I'm superstitious. He's got ten. He's got ten K's. He's cruising. Well, they pulled skins, by the way. Yeah, they pulled him. Okay The Bostonian versus the book. We're evolving this conversation a little bit to kind of reflect on the three M and, you know, I mean, of course there is, you know, a part of this that relates to signature events, but it's almost I think, the thing we've said pretty consistently is you stratified this tour without like, telling us you're stratifying it. And of course, we can watch and know that it's stratified, like we can watch the three M this week and say, that is not like a PGA tour event. It doesn't feel like it's PGA tour quality now. And I think I think it's fine if it's sold as such. And I get that there are realities of this where it's like, you're not going to you're not going to, you know, call the good events and signature events and then call the other ones like the these are the bad events. Don't watch them like, you know, you you have to market the league. You have to do things around this to get people watch. I get that, but I just I think the thing we're learning through this whole process is, you know, and this is and this is why I give the tour a grace on this for sure. Is like, this is this has to be an information gathering period. There's been a level of disruption in the sport that has created some good things, some cool things. I think that the Liv has played an XFL style role in comparison to the NFL, where it's doing things that are now being adopted and brought to the PGA tour and making that product better. But part of that process is going to be a little bit of information gathering and trying to figure out how do we evolve this league to make it more compelling so that it's you know, whatever, whatever the goal is like, just to take it to the next iteration of modernity. And I think that that it's a little bit like, I like I like where we're going with the signature events. If you kind of just fully take us there and say, there's this strata of tier, strata of the tour and then there's a lower strata of this tour and we're not going to make this one have inflated purses and do all this sort of stuff that that's just it's clearly not that. Yeah, totally. I think the biggest issue you're going to run into is, is like, if it's a relegation type system, which we've always had, which is shuffling of cards year in and year out, competing for a limited amount of cards. So let's say you cut it to 80 or 90 cards, you know, how many cards are you saying? Are safe? You know, if you're saying 70 cards are safe and 20 guys got to go down a tour, you know, 20 cards for the rest of professional golf is not many cards, right? Like we're talking about. We're we're shrinking from 125 down to 70, which is a very big jump as far as just how many good golfers there are in the world, right now compared to, let's say, it was a couple decades ago, is probably, you know, just the talent pool is just shrinking as far as just how good everybody really is. It just is getting tougher and tougher because I think that TV players are realizing that, hey, we have a rival tour, we can't just roll out the same product and expect, that not changing is going to help. So all going to be interesting. I hope I hope they make big radical changes versus just rolling out a similar method that they've had over how many years, which is just, yeah, I don't know. I'm a big, big fan of going to good venues, going to big cities, going where the juice is, let's let's not screw let's let's not overthink is it's not that difficult. I think you make a good point there, too, of like, I think it's very easy to critique without offering suggestions. I think the one thing that, you know, as people talk about shrinking, shrinking, shrinking is think about how many good young players have come up from some of these feeder systems. And are we eliminating opportunities for those guys and creating a new system, like there has to be a not a not a fake we're paying lip service to there has to be a real pathway for young talent to come up, because even even look at us now like and I know people say the cream rises of the crop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like guys like Luke Clanton, Michael Thorbjornsen, you know, Jackson Corbin, you know, even like the Nick Dunlap's of the world who are now on tour need pathways to play themselves into comfort level at these at these, you know, in these big tournaments and find a way to be like, okay, this guy has a chance to legit make it at the next level and maybe some guys, I mean, even like Davis Thompson was didn't like, you know, jump right out of the blocks. You know what I mean? Like, he's a guy that took a little bit of time to get comfortable on tour, and now he's a tour winner. He's got a, you know, an amazingly solid game. Looks like a guy that's going to be around for a number of years. And there needs to be a way to help nurture that guy. And help that guy grow and make sure that he gets a chance to make it while also saying, yeah, we understand the reality of a television product. We understand that we need to have names that attract and names that sell to get people to pay for this whole thing. Otherwise it ain't going to pencil. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's. Yeah, the whole. Because I do believe in, in that I do believe that there should be a cut every week. I think that's part of professional golf. I don't want it to be 70 dudes. Nobody makes a cut because then it's. You're becoming way too much like live golf in which, you know, I think we've we've been, you know, very vocal and, and been very tough on just hey, if you're not having to make a cut, it's, it's just not it just doesn't it just doesn't do it for me. Right? Like when you're watching, you know, these guys are just. They don't. I mean, you just look at a lot of guys, really, you know, like Dustin Johnson being a guy that goes over there and just feels like it's just not the same guy he used to be, and I think it has a lot to do with just not working at it. I just don't want the tour to turn into guys being comfortable. I think professional sports should all be about, you know, got to earn earn what you get. And the PGA tour has always been that way. So I like I want the PGA tour to be a healthy environment to where guys can come up, come down. But young guys like you just mentioned with Luke Clanto, Nick Dunlap that they have a legit avenue. Now they've created pathways, but a legit avenue to where they actually can play their way onto the tour to where they have actual opportunities instead of like Nick Dunlap. When's the Amex? It's like, oh, now you're on tour, you have no points. But here go start. Guess what? He's had to do? He's had to claw his, off this year to even have a chance to make the playoffs, or he be in the exact same position that a guy like Akshay Batea was in last year, which is a guy that misses the playoffs, not in the signature events and has to go and just continue to prove himself that he's worthy to be in these events. And we know that Akshay was good enough and the system didn't allow him to be playing in the big events because he didn't earn the points which it just the whole thing was stupid. And same with Nick Dunlap, who's if you go look at his his position on the Fedex Cup, he wins the 300 points at the Barber, the Barracuda now he's now he's in the top 70, but he's still not safe. Recently, I feel like I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not making bad swings. I don't feel like I'm making terrible decisions and just had got a little bit of a streak of bad luck on par fives, didn't birdie any of them at the open. Didn't birdie any of them today. It's just, you know, I didn't feel like I did anything terribly wrong. Right. But that's just golf. It happens. What's done is done. And this week is the most important week of the year, right now. Villains opinion. He's going to be off over the pin position and leave himself a tough putt there. That should bite. Now He didn't like it by the looks of it, but he'll love it when he sees it. Just got this before that bunker. Put himself in a good position. Just a tiny little baby fade. Ideally placed to tie the lead at 16. He's played well, isn't he, John Rahm and OMG what a championship Sunday we just witnessed. When selfishly you always want to get get that done, but you don't want to see a teammate and a good friend, you know, missing a putt for that happen. For me. The Liv Golf League delivers every single event, doesn't it? I mean, what an incredible finish there. You know what I feel for him. He's been playing beautiful golf in fact, since Miami. He's been the best player in our league. Based on the strokes gained metric. I'm really happy that I had my first Liv golf win. Now that Kelly and the kids are watching, just knowing that I'm bringing the trophy home for them, it feels good to say that it's coming home. And compiling the research for the signature event piece, the amount of guys in that category we're looking at who did miss a cut in the signature events like they are sure, they're free points to a certain extent, but they're like not fully free. And you compare that to a Liv ecosystem. And it's even interesting just, you know, talking about this week about, you know, that these major governing bodies are making more and more of an effort to get these guys, you know, guaranteed spots into these majors, which I think is ultimately a good thing. I mean, we've said it every single major. I think now that we miss a lot of these Liv guys, you know, especially a guy like Bryson. Dude, Rahm won this week, man. Like, I mean, it's it we it's just how do you find a fair way to get them there. And that's and ultimately I think that's a place I come back to is what is fair anymore anyways. It's like we've had this disrupting force in this game, you know, of this influx of money, this new league. And it's part of us has to just kind of let a piece of what was die and live in the past. And this is it's a new reality. And how do we make the most fair set up going forward from there? Like where it's a combination of the a merit based system, as golf has always been, while acknowledging for realities of superstar power and where money's coming from. And that's just the way it is. Like, you know, listen, we'd all love it if it was just this perfect system that made everyone feel happy and good about it. But you also got to be just realistic about it, you know? And just how is the next professional iteration of this game going to look? Exactly. And how do you keep it healthy and surviving? Because if it gets torn apart, then nobody wins. Well, before Liv golf players, mainly top players, felt like there were too many cards to begin with. So 125, was always been the number, that that we that that was the number you had to be under every single year. And players still felt like that was too much. They felt like 100 was a better number. And this is before Liv golf. So they take, you know, 40 some players. Now we're really it really should be a little tighter which is why we're at 70 to make the playoffs which makes sense. But but we go and play this Fedex Cup fall. And if you stay inside the 125 you still keep your card. It's just there's too many cards. It's too the system in the fall makes zero sense to me, I have to understand it, but doesn't mean it makes sense. I feel like the season should be over the Tour Championship, and then those who did make it are are secure for next year. But those that didn't, they start their journey. The Fedex Cup, in January, where they either are on the PGA tour or they're on the Korn Ferry Tour. And it just seems way simpler to me that way. Yeah. I mean, I'll say this, you know, and you might have additional thoughts, but for me, this is kind of where I arrive on this whole thing is, you know, there are definitely there are parts of it that don't make sense to me. There are definitely parts of it where I feel like the It's Always Sunny Charlie Day meme, where I've got like, all the yarn behind me and I'm trying to, like, connect. What the Ian swing five how that, you know, connects to this. You just in this category. Like what? You know what's going on here. But with that said, I get that this is I get that we're still information gathering like maybe happening at a slower rate than we would all prefer and like. And that's probably the tour included. And you said this all along and I'm the same place of you. He's like, I really hope we see something soon. Like 2025. That is a legit like we've we've taken all that testing and this is the new program and we really feel good about this. The it starts with this list right. It starts with the Fedex Cup. That to eligibility to me is one of the biggest things of how many guys play in an event. How many cards are available, the schedule for the year. I don't think you're going to see a huge blow ups in that. Like, I don't think we're going to see on the schedule in 2025. Like Pine Valley, you know, like or Cypress Point, right? Like I like that. That's that's the blow up we all want. But I think if you get the eligibility right, if you get how many players are playing in in the signature event. Correct. And then you also somehow mix in 2 or 3 more locations in the country that were missing, like just ones that that bring the juice. Chicago, New York, LA, I mean, Boston, these are all just huge markets. And then look what we're live has been able to capitalize. Nashville was a huge, huge hit. Now is there a golf course there in Nashville that that's PGA tour worthy, maybe there's maybe there isn't. Austin we've that's been a great event for years that unfortunately we left that town. So there's just these amazing, amazing cities that that that love to watch golf that we I feel like are really poor about going to not very fun places at times where where you're just lacking even even though there's there is a little bit of juice on a Sunday, it's still not the same as going to a Phoenix or Scottsdale, which is one of our best events of the year, that we need more events, not necessarily like Scottsdale, but in that avenue of that demographic and crowd showing up and realizing that, hey, we're out here to have a good time, let's round up all the Liv charters and we're flying everybody to Mullen, Nebraska for the Smiley Show classic at Sandhills in the middle. In the middle of nowhere. What has happened? What is transpired here at the first Bank center here in Denver, Colorado? It wasn't just a big night of fights. It was a big night of memorable moments. Conor McGregor wins us here in Denver, Colorado. Left hand for Rockwell, right hand right back for Mike Perry and now three. And oh and Casey, can I get a face off with Conor McGregor. Bam. Thanks It's an incredible set up here. Incredible matchmaking. Incredible storytelling. All you had to come here all these fighters that step in here one year and all of my respect. And I mean to this game. Yeah we'll be into this. Yeah And we are live here in the Maverik Center here in Salt. You know what. What a night. It is going to be historic indeed. Who begins he 56. Whoever's the king of violence right here. This is going to be a great fight. Early on the. Right hand from Gary, who's the king of my life, I am. Come back fighting in its purest form. Bare knuckle fighting in the city of angels. Seconds We've got the biggest announcement in the BKFC history. We're about to make. So let's make that announcement. What's up? Knuckle mania? The notorious Conor McGregor here, ladies and gentlemen, the huge announcement that I have for you today. Conor McGregor, myself and McGregor. Sports and Entertainment is now an owner of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. Welcome to the big leagues, David Feldman. Baby. We did it. He's now an owner of BKFC with us. And we're going to take this thing all the way to the top. Now This is something you and I were looking at, you know, again, something we've been keeping tabs on all year long, but specific to this week, you know, the strength of this field and the result for the PGA tour against the way the live is scheduled this entire season. And this is another one where I'll go ahead and share my screen here. So we have a reference point for anyone who's also watching, on YouTube. But it's just it's interesting because here's the thing. Here are a couple things that struck me. First, that you I would have assumed that live would be playing a tune up before every major championship. And that being the case, I'd say, you know, no matter what the strength of that event is, I understand why Liv's going against it, because they're trying to get their guys ready. It's actually interesting. They did not do a tune up for the PGA Championship this year. And there is a rumored schedule floating around for Liv next year. And it's the same thing holds for whatever reason, they've decided that that may stretch is just a soft spot that they don't really want to go for. This year they played an event May 3rd through fifth, and their next event was June 7th through ninth. And, you know, just went straight from the they went against the, the CJ Cup and then they went against the, the memorial, ahead of the US open. So you know, they played three events that were sort of, you know, tune ups for majors. Then they played an additional four. Well, they played three thus far that went head to head with PGA tour signature events. They'll have a fourth, the Greenbrier that's going to go up against the, first Fedex Cup playoff event, and then the other events that they chose to go up against, this year will be, the W and Phoenix Open, the Cognizant Classic and the Palm Beaches, the Zurich Classic, the CJ Cup, Byron Nelson, the 3 a.m. open, the Napa Valley Golf Championship, and then their team championship will it will be an off week for the PGA tour in the fall. So you know, I, I think it's an interesting mix. It's curious to me that that they went up against W and Phoenix open because I feel like that's kind of your target demo for Liv. What else stands out to you from this list? Smiley Well, when I look at this list, I start to think about. All right, let's let's use the hypothetical of Liv golf. Let's just say they're going to be here for 5 to 10 more years. If and if the PGA tour is going to coexist with Liv golf Tour, how can we have something to where Charlie the viewer, wants to watch both? And to me right now, they just they haven't figured it out. Initially it felt like their their strategy was to go against the, the worser of the events. But like you said, going up against going up, going up against Phoenix makes no sense. Right? Like that's like just an event you would never want to go up against, the weeks in which I would want to turn on Liv was I even texted you. I was like, I actually want to watch live today because I didn't really have, I didn't really care to watch the three M just because I felt like the leaderboard was good, it seemed like they had a decent crowd, did I watch? I didn't, but it's still. I thought about it, I did think about it today. Been like, if you did that. And I have watched Liv golf just for those that that do consume both products and, listen, I mean, the they have great players. I love watching Jon Rahm. He's still one of my all time best players have ever played with. And I wish I could watch him more because that's it's so fun to watch him play golf. He's a he's an angry person when he plays. But, so Cyril Hatton, the guy that finished second this week, but I, I would I would like to see now ideally I would rather live not be around and everybody playing together again. But if Liv is going to exist I would like to see them really just avoid all the big PGA tour events and have it to where and maybe that doesn't fit the major schedule. When you get in the summer. Kind of, like you were talking about maybe before, the Masters or before, the Open Championship, maybe it can't be perfect, but in the early part of the season, maybe you can make it work a little bit. And that that's really just my only thought is, is that. But I, I just think that the times like and just looking at even like their schedule projection for next year. Dude, I just I'm not turning the TV on when unless it's like near prime time, right. I think a lot of American viewers feel that way. And I know Liv's whole thing is going global, and spreading golf around the world, but from an American audience, I think the PGA tour is great for an American because, hey, it's like clockwork. You turn on the TV at 4:30 p.m. and you can watch, you know, the last 4 or 5 holes of the golf tournament. If you turn the TV on and Adelaide for the last 4 or 5 holes, you need to do it in the morning, right? So it's just a it's a totally different, viewing cycle. And maybe it fits a, an international viewer much better than an American viewer. But I that's, that's the hold up for me is, is the time in which you can watch. And then the fact that they go up against each other too much. Yeah. It's it continues. It folds right in with the discussion that we're having this entire show, which is what is the future of golf look like and how are we sort of composing that in a way that makes sense for the viewer, like the most important piece of this whole machine, which is the person that spends money on professional golf to keep the thing going. And I think that there are I absolutely agree with you on I think the timing of it is interesting, and we could even pull up here because there's a rumored live schedule, you know, for next season that I think is kind of interesting. And so looking at this right now, we have Saudi, they've shovd some tournaments around. They've got, you know, opening Saudi Arabia, in February and then going to Adelaide in February, which is a bump up. I believe, from May this past year, then going to Hong Kong and Singapore, and then the week leading into the Masters will be in Austin, Texas, then going to Tokyo, Japan, later in April and then South Korea in May, which is interesting. Then the week before the US open, they'll go to Washington, D.C. and then they will go to Nashville on the back end of D.C, the week leading into the Open Championship. Will they'll be in it's a to be determined location in Europe. And then on the back end, the Open Championship, they'll be in the United Kingdom and then it looks like we don't know the exact dates for the 2025 Fedex Cup playoffs yet, but it looks like they have three events that should go up against those in Mexico City, Indianapolis and Dallas to close out the year. So here's what here's what I kind of like about the way the schedule feels a little bit different from past years is opening in some of these locations that if we're in the States and it's still really cold and a lot of locations and they're still kind of snow on the ground, you're watching this sort of exotic golf and it looks warm and guys are wearing shorts and you're kind of saying, like this is, you know, this this looks like this gets me kind of interested in this. It's the same thing of, you know, PGA tour doing the Florida swing. You know, or even some of the events that sort of Arizona and California and stuff like that. It kind of gets you warmed up for golf. So. Oh, yeah, it gets you excited. It gets you excited. And then you look out the window, you're like, oh, not quite time yet. Not quite time yet. I can't quite play golf, but I like that piece of it. But I do think like in a larger sense it is, you know, whether or not the two tours are actually going to mesh or whether or not they're going to coexist, how do you find spots that are are open? And I don't know if it's if it's literally getting to the point where there's some sort of a deal with the PIF and they're saying, you know, hey, our tour players are going to be released to play in these events these weeks, and we're going to have kind of smaller, you know, a weaker field events here. On whatever version of the PGA tour it is. They're like, I think that's a one solve that could work, or if they're just going to say, hey, we're just going to go head to head, but you know, it's obvious that, you know, the field is going to migrate. I don't know, I don't know what I mean, that's so far down the road. But like, I'd like to see a fold together better to kind of further your point. Let's say there's, a PGA tour, schedule that has 12 to 16 events. And let's just use a, let's use 14 as a base number because that's that's easy because that's what Liv is doing. So now we're talking about 28 weeks and we're talking about four majors. So we're at 32 total available weeks of golf. Now there's got to be a way to make all of that work because we're talking about 52 weeks in the year. So we got 20 extra weeks in which you can kind of, you know, not compete with football, but also you can mesh maybe 1 or 2 here and there in the fall. But I just think there's a world in which it works, I think if you had a smaller PGA tour deal, but I know these guys, probably these top guys play, oh gosh. How many events do they play? Probably closer to 20. It's probably about right. So 14 on the low side. So you're going to have some tough crossovers like we kind of just talked about where hey you just can't do anything about the week before major I mean you're going to have guys playing that week and you're just gonna have to pick and choose which one you watch. But maybe there's a way in which both coexist. Hopefully they learned their lesson. Hey, this ain't the NBA, bro. You don't have six fouls and they will check you on this stuff. And Brooks has a reputation coming into this. You can tell the refs are watching him and they were on him all the time. This was 1012 years ago Canada playing Gre with that type of lead that they had, they probably would have mentally crumbled and lost against Greece by 3 or 4 points in the final minute of that ball game. Sports rage late night only on sports grid. Try and set the stage for what should be a great year of NFL action. There's a handful of teams that potentially can compete for a Super Bowl championship. Confusion and uncertainty. This year more than some in the past, this team looks like it's ready to make a move, but we just don't know if it's bad or good this year. J.J. McCarthy is eventually going to take over, but it's like it's a no lose situation for them. I mean, they suck. They were seven only on Sports Grid. That race for the Cy Young pretty much as equally compelling and intriguing as the race for the wild card spots in the National League. And also keep in mind, Skeans hasn't pitched the entire season, so his ERA gets affected much, much more. If he has a poor outing than, let's just say, Chris Sale or Zack Wheeler. That's been there all season long. This would be a fun one to watch and play out, but the big loser last night were the Phillies and Zack Wheeler. The early line only on sports grid. Their coach has a personality that is New York City tough, grinding, defensive, no holds barred. We muck this game up and we make you play it our way. And Tibbs has been rewarded and he should be rewarded for what he's done. With the Knicks betting above the rim only on sports grid. I mean, here's where again, my content brain wheels start to spin a little bit is like, because just as you're laying that out there, you're like, okay, we have 23 weeks of the year. Like, I would go so far as to is to be like, let's not football season. Yeah Well that's that's football season also. But but even even like for golf for people who are always consuming golf content like I know I am and like I know many of my friends are, it's like, let's go send some cameras like rotate, pick a new guy, a new handful of guys every couple of weeks. They're not doing it all the time. And let's, let's have like a YouTube series where everyone's miked up for a money game. Like something that's more authentic than the match and less produced than the match. Like, I want you to take the production value of like, a good good or a Bob does sports, and I want to just mike these guys up at their home club and just let them let it rip and just see, just see what that does. Try to sell ads against that. Try, you know, see if see if that all of a sudden opens you up to a whole new lane of viewers, you know, on YouTube or somewhere else, or on socials that that, you know, grows a different type of interest because, I mean, if you're telling me that there are you're shrinking this thing, you know, by 60%, you know, whatever. There's like there, there there are 40% less events out there. You know, there have as many events out there. Well, I know for sure I'm absolutely going to be tuning in to those events. And I know the best players are going to be there. So it's going to be the marquee events you get. You excited to watch golf. So excited because like, yeah, we can't miss this week. And then in the interim it's like you're trying to prep for some sort of deal and it's like, oh yeah, we've got, you know, Scottie Scheffler and Jordan Spieth playing. You know Austin Golf Club you know for high stakes. And you know you got you know Bob does sports. And Pat Perez out there commentating on the thing. And it's a nice hang. It's like a two part series. You know there's like we cut it down to an hour for the first night. An hour for the second night. I can just, you know, crack a beer any time I want to. And watch it on an off night like that, to me, is like, yes, like that sounds like the type of content consume. Just disappointed in you. Why Because I just lost a job opportunity. I mean, I could have been commentating at Austin Country Club and you throw Bob does sports and Pat Perez out there. Man, I could have been no, no holding the mic because we're going to be playing in this. It's going to be you and I as a content unit. We're gonna like, what the hell man? You just just gave somebody a job right in front of me. We're gonna. We're gonna have jobs, dude. I'm creating the ecosystem. We will have jobs, all right? We're gonna have big corner offices, and, you know, like a gazelle. Just. No. Just got. No, no, no. Listen, I'll take care of you. Eaten alive by fat Perez, right here on live on the air. And I love Fat Perez. I'd love to listen to FP, but we'll get you on. That was tough. We'll get you broadcasting jobs. There are a whole litany of jobs I have earmarked for you, smiley. Don't you worry. You'll be taken care of. Well, and this new this new ecosystem. I got it. As as we wrap up the live thing, I gotta once again give a shout out to our guy, Sean Lowry, who just every week he's got a new stat packet ready for me. Oh, yeah? What does he got this week? What stands out? So here's your trivia question for the week. Oh okay. How much what do you think Richard Bland's lifetime earnings are on on live. Oh man. I'm going to guess that he's made 20 million. Oh wow. Guess Hi. Everyone's hot on Richard Blaine now. 13 million all time. He's never. But he's only played 31 events and he's never finished. Worse than 40th. So that was maybe that was maybe a bad trivia. It is the summer of Richard Bland, after all. Winning all he got. Any other ones? Any other good, questions he has? Well, how about this one? So are you gonna. You gonna ask it to me or you tell it to me? Well, I what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to tell you one piece, and I'm gonna ask you a piece of trivia about one of these players. So. Okay, there are a couple of things going on here. Some moves that are happening. Harold Varner looks like he finished. He finished top 20 this week. It looks like he's earned himself an open spot for 2025. On the other side of that is. What do you mean like like like he's earned his like, even if he's not staying with his team he's he's playing the league next year. It looks like this might have worked out for him. Is there a certain number that you can get to that there's like a whole relegation section. There are guys that you know happened last year. Do certain set of guys. So it looks like Pat Perez and Branden Grace are going to are going to be relegated. So Pat Perez, how much money do you think Pat Perez has made all the time on this. Well is the team included in that. You know it's not clarified in Sean's note. I'd have to assume so. But you know that number is so I mean the aces have been like for the first two years. They were the team to beat. So I, I, I don't I can't even give you a number because they're so different. You know, with how much you make in the team just take a flier. Guess how much. And unfortunately, unfortunately I, I think the Cleek's team is included in the Richard Bland number because they just they probably haven't made should have factored that in. Just made a lot of money all right. So I'm going to go I mean he's probably made oh gosh he's probably made 22 million. Wow. Hi again. Really He's 18th all time on the money list. That is 17.2 million. That's pretty good. Getting that's a lot of money. That's a lot of cash, so listen, thanks to Sean. Sean, I might teed up soon. Sean's. Sean's a local in the triangle here, so. Oh perfect. Are we going to have, like, a. I'm already taking a gander at. Just so you know, I'm taking Sandra Eastlake. Well, we have a ton of work to do on the one and done front, because we have to figure out how many points we're assigning Olympic medals, and we now have to figure out how we're converting points to dollars. Do you want to do points for that? Like, do you? I mean, we could do whatever we want to do. We can just give picks out for the Olympics and just be done with it. Well, because we because you get points for or no, you don't get points for the for the two first two Fed Cups. It's just it's all an order of finish. Yeah. Yeah. No but but isn't the. No no but but you you get points. You get points to finish. Yeah. You get points the first two weeks. You get points the first two weeks. Right So we can do it for those. We just got to figure out a system for. Yeah we'll get there. We gotta we'll get there. I'll tell you what. If anyone has good suggestions, if you first of all, if you made it this far on this podcast, congrats. Thank you for joining us for this long, second of all, find us on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, find a place. Comment. Your suggestion for our one and done point system for the Olympics and for, the Tour Championship. And then we'll we'll take the best one. We'll use it. Yeah. There you go. We do kind of got to get Olympic picks in, but I think we have a few more days before we do that. So Yeah, that's, that's next week. So I, I'm excited to see actually this week. Right. Oh yeah. What week are we in now. Well, like this coming week. Oh, yes. True. Today's Sunday yes. It's this week slate for both of us. Yeah yeah yeah, yeah. Well past both of our bedtimes this stage of the game. So. Recently, I feel like I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not making bad swings. I don't feel like I'm making terrible decisions and just had got a little bit of a streak of bad luck on par fives, didn't birdie any of them at the open. Didn't birdie any of them today. It's just, you know, I didn't feel like I did anything terribly wrong. Right, but that's just golf. It happens. What's done is done. And this week is the most important week of the year. Right now. The lands at pin high. He's going to be off over the pin position and leave himself a tough putt there. That should bite. Now He didn't like it by the looks of it, but he'll love it when he sees it. Just get this before that bunker put himself in a good position. Just a tiny little baby fade. Ideally placed to tie the lead at 16. He's playing well, isn't he, Jon Rahm and OMG what a championship Sunday we just witnessed. When Bryce obviously you always want to get get that done, but you don't want to see a teammate and a good friend. You know missing a putt for that happen. For me. The Liv golf League delivers every single event doesn't it? I mean, what an incredible finish there. You know what I feel for him. He's been playing beautiful golf. In fact, since Miami. He's been the best player in our league. Based on the strokes gain metric. I'm really happy that I had my first Liv golf win. Now that Kelly and the kids are watching, just knowing that I'm bringing the trophy home for them, it feels good to say that it's coming home. The player of the year debate, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele A few weeks ago, it would have been absurd to suggest anybody other than Scottie Scheffler, winning this thing, but I think there's an argument to be made. I think if I was in the court of law and I was and I was on the stand, and I'm presenting a case for Xander Schauffele, it's going to be contingent on future events like. Yes, I think that Xander is the Eastlake whisperer. So I think that, like, we have to factor in what's going to happen. The rest of the year. But do you think this thing is close right now? Like we're looking at some stats here. What's popping for you? Six wins is currently popping. Yes And that is good, for signature event wins that's popping two majors. Means a lot though. That that honestly counts for you know, you can double the wins on that. So count them as two, so it'd be a total of, yeah. Because he didn't win the other events. It's four events. He's I would put that if you if you do my, my, my doubler here. So, that stands out. I mean, gosh, the fact that neither Mr. Scott. Not surprising at all. 34 events played combined and a big fat zero missed cuts for these two. I mean, stats we all know how good that they're great at everything. The punting stats for Scotty. I mean, there's nothing nothing that we didn't learn looking at, this. Besides that, I agree. You know, in the court of law, if you had to argue for Xander Schauffele, you'd say, hey, what needs to happen, what needs to happen? I think he's got to have he's I don't know if gold is the answer, but if he medals I think is a star. So Xander Schauffele gets a medal I think gold obviously would would be that gold is nice. That means a lot. Gold means a lot. But I think I think that tour championship, you know, it's that's going to that's going to be what's kind of sitting and everybody's back of their brains right. When it finishes out. Because I think the voting goes late in the fall. Right. Because I remember last year thinking, why are why isn't the voting done now like, well, because remember that was that was the weird year last year. That was the double wrap around. That's why Ludwig and Eric Cole, the rookie of the year race, went so late. Whereas I think this year it might actually be earlier. It should be right after. Like, why do I have to find out the player of the year that much later? Yeah, I mean, in looking at this list, like, I just love the scoring average thing where it's like they're just one two. Like it's so clear that these two guys are the best players on tour this year. Scotty at 67.97, Xander at 68.57. And then you look at Xander, you're like, man, he has made $15.9 million this year. Like that's a lot of money. You look over at Scott, he's made north of 28 million and he has a lot of tournaments left to play, so smiley, let me throw a hypothetical at you here, because this is we're just we're we're fully dabbling at this point. Let's say Xander medals. Let's say Xander earns a medal better than whatever Scotty medals like. Like, you know, whether it's, you know, they both medal and he earns gold. Scotty earned silver or silver and bronze or he earns a medal, and Scotty doesn't. And Xander wins the Tour Championship. But Scotty wins one of the Fedex Cup playoff events. What would you say at that point? Okay, here's can I kind of hypothetical your hypothetical? Oh, please. You can't triple stamp a double stamp. Has there ever been a player win player of the year to never win a PGA tour event that year? Oh wow. That just break your brain. Wow wow. Let's say let's say Scotty goes and just absolute shoots the wad in the playoffs. Plays terribly. And Xander wins a miss. He would he he's he's he's already in Eastlake. Right. Like he he forgets how to tie his shoe at all three events. And Xander wins gold. But let's say Xander finishes second, second, second and all the playoff events and I mean, is there a case to be made that guy won a gold, two gold medals or, excuse me, a gold medal and, two major championships. Didn't win a PGA tour event. Can you give that guy the player of the year for not winning a PGA tour event? So. Okay, I was just I was just Zander Schlafly's attorney. Now I'm the judge. Like, if you there is no resume coming from Xander Schauffele's camp, that is going to have me award him player of the year. That does not include a Tour Championship win. Like I'm saying, like I think he needs to win the Tour Championship for this to even be a discussion lik, kudos to thank you, Jude. Well said, judge. Kudos to BMW Championship. All of which we're looks like we're going to be at. So excited for that. But he has to he has to win. He has to win the Tour Championship. For this to be a conversation. And he very well might because he's plays fantastic at this place. As mentioned off the top of the episode, do not miss the second episode of this week, Smiley Kaufman, alongside Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, recapping an Ireland golf trip. I don't. That's just about as good as it gets. So, look forward to that and appreciate you sticking with us, watching, listening. This whole thing tonight. And yeah, we'll be back here to talk to you very soon